Fortune
Fortune & Fame was an American pop punk band active from 2002–2011, and consisted of vocalist/guitarist Brandon Fullerway, vocalist/bassist Ryan Summers, lead guitarist James Turner, and drummer Trey Williams. Fortune & Fame have been called the "near-miss band" of the 21st century, having four mainstream hit singles, "Talking About MTV" (2004), "Heartless as You" (2006), "What Happened to the Sex?" (2007), and "The Last Time You Were Sober" (2011) all reaching the Top 3 of the Hot 100 but none managing the top position. History 2003: Beginnings & Of Course It Is The band formed in February 2003, eventually coming up with the name Fortune & Fame, the band joking that fame and fortune were the only reasons they were in the music business. The band played at dozens of small venues, initially as a cover band, covering mostly '90s bands, through the first half of 2003. In May 2003, one night, John Dorgert, one of the producers of independent label Drop-By Records, was walking by a venue they were playing at, and liked their music a lot, offering them to play for Drop-By Records. The band decided trying it, with no intentions of signing a deal, and were offered to record an EP by whatever standards they wished. Fortune & Fame, astonished, agreed and wrote/recorded the EP, Of Course It Is through June 2003. Though the EP was not given much commercial attention, the band began playing much bigger concerts, opening for much bigger artists, and eventually were noticed by major label SFA Records in September 2003 who offered to sign a multi-album deal with them. Despite vocalist/guitarist Fullerway's wish to remain obscure, not wishing for the band to become big musicians, vocalist/bassist Summers managed to convince him to agree, though this would become a major problem in the band's later years. 2003–2004: Fortune & Fame & mainstream success The band wrote/recorded what would be their self-titled debut through the fall months of 2003. The first single, "Expressing My Feelings", released in November, was considered a success, managing the Top 10 of the US Rock Tracks, and even peaking at #59 on the Billboard Hot 100. The album's second single, "Haha (Not So Much)", released in December 2003, was much more of a hit than the label expected, topping the US Rock Tracks and reaching #14 on the Billboard Hot 100, becoming one of SFA Records' most successful acts. This was followed by the success of two other singles from the same album, "Another Love Song" and "Talking About MTV", both of which peaked within the Top 10 of the Billboard Hot 100, and established Fortune & Fame as one of the few rock bands to reach mainstream success from material based on exposing the media's universally perceived flaws. 2005–06: In All Casualness Their 2006 follow up, In All Casualness, was also a successful release, with hit singles like "Image", "Heartless as You", "Call It Like You See It", "In All Casualness", and "Pretty Much a Given". 2006–07: Laugh It Off Their third album, Laugh It Off, released in 2007, was also commercially successful, being certified 6x Platinum, with hits such as "Forgot to Write the Lyrics", "Where's the Alcohol", and "What Happened to the Sex?". 2008–10: Forget Tomorrow & loss in popularity Their 2009 fourth album, Forget Tomorrow, was not near as successful, only managing the Top 20 single "Fitting the Stereotype". Forget Tomorrow has been certified Gold by the RIAA, and is considered the low-point of Fortune & Fame's career. 2010–11: Band problems, Like It's a Tragedy, and renewed success During their 2010 tour in support for their 2009 effort Forget Tomorrow, inflicting arguments arose from inside the band, especially between Fullerway and Summers, when deciding on what direction to go, and as well as the commercial falure of Forget Tomorrow. Fullerway, at first, wanted go back to obscurity as they had been before 2004's Fortune & Fame, but after realizing the reality of the situation, wished to go a new direction and write about personal issues in his life, something the band was known for doing arguably the opposite of. Summers wanted to continue down the path they had been going, calling Fullerway's direction "career suicide". These arguments ultimately resulted in Summers and Fullerway writing individual songs, rather than their previous songwriting method which included the entire band. Lead guitarist Turner and drummer Williams were not notified of what music Fullerway and Summers had written until two days before recording, which angered Turner and Williams, calling them the "dominate half of the band". This production resulted in the album having twelve tracks, an even number, seven by Fullerway, and seven by Summers, even though a thirteenth song, "Like It's a Tragedy", which would become a single, was added due to its balance between Fullerway and Summers' vocal appearances. Despite these conflicts, their fifth and final album, Like It's a Tragedy, released on February 21, 2011 was very successful, managing the Top 20 hits "Like It's a Tragedy" and Define Love", and the Top 10 hits "Drop Out" and "The Last Time You Were Sober", the latter of which peaked at #2 on the Billboard Hot 100 for several weeks and was certified 3x Platinum by the RIAA. 2011: Break-up During touring, in 2011, Summers and Fullerway wouldn't speak to each other at all, not on the tour bus nor while at hotels, but managed to appear as if no conflict existed while on stage. However, on July 13, 2011, while performing in Miami, Florida, while the temperature was around ninety-seven degrees, Fortune & Fame had just finished performing the band's set list and Fullerway offered for the crowd to tell them what songs to play for encore. The crowd audibly named several songs, including "Heartless as You", "Line by Line", and "Underneath It All". All of these songs coincidentally featured Fullerway instead of Summers, and this angered Summers, who walked off stage after slamming his bass guitar into some of William's drums, leaving a confused audience and horrified band members. The remaining band members decided to cancel the remainder of the tour the next day, but both Turner and Williams on July 15 announced their decision to leave Fortune & Fame as well, citing Fullerway and Summers' dominance over the band as "unbearable". Fullerway decided to not keep the Fortune & Fame name, officially calling the band "split". Band members Turner and Williams, who remained friends, decided to start a new band with a new singer and bassist, while Summers and Fullerway each began solo careers. Controversy In 2007, one of Fortune & Fame's singles, "What Happened to the Sex?", along with Holiday, Fame's single "All About Drugs", largely due to the songs' subject matters, were not considered radio-friendly and were initially avoided entirely by many radio stations, sometimes even when requested, which was relatively common for stations to do. However, this soon caused public outrage, many citing that censorship of music was unjustified, and after numerous complaints were filed to local radio stations, claiming to stop listening to the station. Surprisingly, this severely impacted many radio stations' listener-ship nationwide; the incident was picked up by CNN news, and subsequently heavily covered by the media. Eventually, a majority of the radio stations decided to play the two songs; this event was very influential for musicians not censoring their music. Discography *''Fortune & Fame'' (2004) *''In All Casualness'' (2006) *''Laugh It Off'' (2007) *''Forget Tomorrow'' (2009) *''Like It's a Tragedy'' (2011) Singles Fortune & Fame had a total of twenty-six singles, fifteen Top 20 singles, and nine Top 10 singles in accordance with the Billboard Hot 100. They have nine number-one singles on the US Rock Tracks chart. Notes *1 Limited release *2 Peaked outside the Billboard Hot 100 Band members *Brandon Fullerway — vocals, rhythm guitar (2003–2011) *Ryan Summers — vocals, bass (2003–2011) *James Turner — lead guitar, backing vocals (2003–2011) *Trey Williams — drums (2003–2011)